Disney CEO Says Companies Involved in Joint Venture Sports Streamer are Not Concerned About Lawsuits, DOJ Review
Speaking with CNBC this week, Disney chair Bob Iger said that his company, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery have confidence they’ll beat Fubo’s lawsuit.
It’s nearly two months to the day since Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery announced that a seismic shift in the world of sports broadcasting was coming. The three companies are planning to combine all of their live sports rights onto a new streaming platform that has a targeted launch date of fall 2024, but imposing hurdles like a Department of Justice antitrust review and a lawsuit from Fubo stand in its way. Despite those potential roadblocks, the tone struck by Disney CEO Bob Iger this week can best be described as unconcerned, as the executive seems to believe that the three companies do not have much to fear in terms of getting their new platform to market.
- Speaking with CNBC this week, Iger said the three companies are proceeding as if the new streamer will “clear government scrutiny.”
- He also referenced Fubo’s lawsuit, saying the partners are proceeding as if they will win in that case too.
- The JV platform does not have a price or confirmed release date, but recently named a CEO.
It was only a matter of days after the announcement of the JV streamer before government regulators indicated that it would take a look at the product. The Department of Justice promised to review the streamer for antitrust violations, but according to Iger, the three companies teaming up for the service are not overly worried.
“We’re proceeding as though this is going to clear basically government scrutiny,” Iger told CNBC’s David Faber in an interview this week.
He struck a similarly ambivalent tone regarding the antitrust lawsuit filed against the JV streamer by Fubo. Fubo's suit was made public a few days after the DOJ review announcement, and the company’s CEO David Gandler has termed his struggle to stop the platform from ever reaching consumers as a “duel to the death.”
Iger did not reference Fubo or Gandler by name, but when Faber asked him about possible issues with the streamer raised by “potential competitors,” the Disney CEO used language similar to his answer about potential interference from the government.
“Well, we know that some [competitors] are raising the issues. We’re proceeding as though we’ll prevail,” Iger answered simply.
What Do the Experts Say About Possibility that Lawsuit, Regulators Shut Down JV Streamer?
There are still lots of unanswered questions about the JV streamer, and Iger declined to clear them up in his CNBC interview. He said that he had a sense of what the three companies would charge for the platform, but declined to share a specific number. Most estimates suggest that viewers will likely have to pay around $50 per month for the service. The platform recently named former Hulu and Apple TV+ exec Pete Distad as its CEO.
Whether the service will ever see the light of day amidst promised scrutiny from federal regulators and Fubo’s lawsuit is also yet to be seen, but the executives responsible for creating it are striking a tone of confidence. Iger’s opinion regarding the Fubo suit is reinforced by sports lawyer Chris Deubert, who explained in March that “antitrust law protects competition… not competitors.” Like Iger, Deubert is also unconvinced that the Fubo suit will end the way the plaintiffs would like.
In late February, New Street Research analyst Blair Levin wrote that the DOJ review was not likely to find the JV streamer violated antitrust laws. The three companies involved have plenty of friends at various levels of government on both sides of the aisle, and regulators are unlikely to see the platform as a threat to competition, Levin argues.
It seems these analysts and attorneys are on the same page with Disney’s top brass. Only time will tell if the DOJ review or the Fubo suit keep the JV streaming service from Disney, Fox, and WBD from reaching customers, but observers can count Disney chair Bob Iger as thoroughly unbothered by those obstacles.
Fubo
Fubo is a live TV streaming service with about 90 top channels that start at $79.99 per month. This plan includes local channels, 19 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs). In total, you should expect to pay about $94.99 per month, after adding in their RSN Fee. Fubo was previously known as “fuboTV.”